Prefabricated building elements



Sept. 23, 1969 A. SAARINEN 3,468,081

PREFABRICATED BUILDING ELEMENTS Filed Dec. 20, 1967 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 51x VENTOR, r fa/m zar/Men 1- 3, 1969 A. SAARINEN 3,468,081

PREFABRICATED BUILDING ELEMENTS Filed Dec. 20, 1967 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig 2 Sept. 23, 1969 A. SAARINEN 3,463,081

PREFABRICATED BUILDING ELEMENTS Filed Dec. 20, 1967 5 Sheets-Sheet s Fig 3 I Lx'rlcx'ron. 7414/5 aar/i161:

fi md p 23, 1969 A. SAARINEN 3,468,081

PREFABRICATED BUILDING ELEMENTS Filed Dec. 20, 1967 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Fig 4 I \IVENTOR. 4AM Mar/wen Sept. 23, 1969 A. SAARINEN PREFABRICATED B UILDING ELEMENTS 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Dec. 20, 1967 Fig5 INVENTOR Au/fs Saar/77671,

Agent United States ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE Prefabricated, cast building elements to be used in erecting houses, comprising room units constituted by floor, ceiling and side-wall slabs, preferably plane and finished inside, and provided with a relatively coarse-pitched toothing outside, so as to provide load-bearing, thickened beamlike portions therebetween. The profiles or beam-like portions between upper and lower room units overlap and interengage when the room units are assembled into a house.

The profiles of adjoining wall portions or slabs, and superposed floor and ceiling portions, are preferably set off in horizontal direction by half a pitch. In a preferred embodiment, the floor and ceiling slabs have relatively thin intermediate portions between the beam-like portions, with the latter being recessed in, for example, the ceiling slabs, and the intermediate portions being conversely recessed, in turn, in the floor slabs.

The invention relates to prefabricated building elements used in erecting houses. The elements comprise floor and ceiling slabs and at least one side-wall slab, attached together and ready for installation so as to form a unit constituting a room in the house.

When aiming at cheaper erection costs, the building industry during the last years has entered upon using more and more prefabricated elements to an increasing extent, whereby part of the work at the building site is more and more reduced. It is well known that the work at the building site, often carried out under rather disadvantageous conditions, is relatively expensive. Instead of this, manufacturing of prefabricated elements or units can be performed in a factory in great series and under good conditions, whereby the work becomes effective and the costs per unit are substantially reduced.

The elements hitherto used have been mostly factory molded or cast regular slabs which have been joined at the building site to the body structure of the building, and in individual floors to form outer walls and partitions. The use of prefabricated room elements has been relatively limited and even then only in smaller units as for example in bathrooms. In some countries experiments have been made to build houses by using entire prefabricated room elements but even then the body structure is made in a building on which the elements or units are being installed.

An object of this invention is to provide a room element or unit comprising floor and ceiling slabs and at least one Wall slab so that by suitably assembling them side-by-side and one on top of the other a house with several floors can be built up without first making a. body structure for the building. There is thus achieved a considerable technical advantage and a saving in costs compared with What was known before.

According to one of the major features of the invention, the cross section of a slab element on one side is plane and on the other side is provided with a rather coarse-pitched toothing or with corrugations so that when these slab elements are joined to room units the plane surface comes to the inner side, the corrugations being 3,46%,fi3l Patented Sept. 23, 1969 formed so that they carry beam-like portions, giving a strong construction.

The slab elements are so fitted that in the structure the ceiling element of the lower room unit and the floor element of the upper room unit mutually interlock so that the projections of one element fit into the depressions of the other and overlap therewith, and the wall element of one room unit fits between portions of an adjacent element in a corresponding way.

The various objects, features and attendant advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of a preferred, exemplary embodiment of the prefabricated, case building elements when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein FIG. 1 is a simplified axonometric view of a prefabricated, cast building element in the form of a room unit, according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a partial vertical cross-sectional view of a building made of room units as shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a partial horizontal cross-sectional view of a building;

FIG. 4 is an axonometric, somewhat schematic view of the joining of the side wall and the floor of an upper room unit and the ceiling of a lower room unit in accordance with the invention; and

FIG. 5 is a view similar to that of FIG. 4 but of the joining including the end walls of the respective room units.

A prefabricated building element in the form of a room unit according to the invention is made of slab elements molded or cast in suitable forms from a concrete or other stiffening or hardening mass. Each room unit comprises a floor element or slab 1, a ceiling slab 2 and at least one side-wall slab, such as shown at 3 and 4, which at or along their edges are joined together so that they form a box-like unit capable to be handled, transported and installed as a single unit.

According to the invention the cross section of the floor, ceiling and side slabs 1 to 4 of the room unit is made plane or uniform on one side and toothed with rather coarse-pitched teeth on the other side so that on the outer surface of the elements there are formed thickened beam-like portions 5. This gives the slab elements the firmness needed to give the floor elements 1, on the one hand, sufficient load-bearing ability and the wall elements 3, 4, on the other, sufficient compressive strength without the need to make the elements all too massive and heavy. As shown in an exemplary manner, the tooth provided by the beam portion 5 is substantially trapeziumshaped.

Further, when the room units are made of the slabs according to the invention and when assembling them during the installation side-by-side and one on top of the other, the ceiling slab 2 of the lower unit and the floor slab 1 of the upper unit, as well as the wall slabs 3, 4 of the adjacent units will fit so that the projections of the one unit fit into the depressions of the other unit (FIGS. 2 and 3); thus the installation of the elements and units becomes easier.

For this purpose, when joining the slab elements to form a room unit, one proceeds so that the slabs located two by two on opposite sides of the room unit are made so that their respective cross sections are shifted between the elements by half a pitch in a horizontal direction. The room units can thus be placed one. on another as Well as side-by-side so that they come accurately to the predetermined place.

FIG. 2 shows a vertical cross section of a building made of room units according to the invention, as well as of window walls 6. The exemplary building has a basement and three floors. The building has no frame struc- 3 ture but it is made of elements 1 to 3, etc. according to FIG. 1 by stacking them both vertically and horizontally. Only a sole element, as shown at the basement level, has to be molded or cast at the building site.

The room units located on the individual floors and bounded by window walls 6 are made according to FIG. 1, comprising besides the floor slab 1, ceiling slab 2 and side-wall slabs 3, 4 also the afore-mentioned window wall slabs 6 with prefastened window frames and insulators. The units are placed one on each other so that between the floor and the ceiling elements 1, 2, there remains a small air channel, except at the edges where the side walls 3, 4 stand.

FIG. 4 shows the joining of the boor and ceiling slabs to the side walls. On the side of the floor slabs 1 there are recesses or openings 7, at the thinner cross section of the slabs, while at the thickened beam portions there remain projections 8. The depth of the recesses 7 corresponds to the height of the thickened portions 5 in the side Wall 3.

correspondingly, the ceiling slabs 2 comprise on their sides recesses or openings 9 at the thickened portions, and projections 10 at the thin portions. The side walls 3 are again attached to the floor and ceiling slabs so that the thick portions 5 hit the projections 8 and 10. When several units form a plural-floor building, the thickenings 5 form a continuous line of vertical beams extending from below upwards. Naturally the arrangement is the same for the walls 4 but so that the thickenings 5 are moved by half a pitch, as before described.

As far as the joint itself is concerned it can be accomplished by means of suitable iron fittings according to known methods.

The size of the elements according to the invention is limited only by transport provisions because the height and width are limited by transport route facilities. Even within these limits it is possible to manufacture elements and units which can be assembled into rather substantial buildings which correspond to normal demands. A greater continuous room can of course be assembled of several successive room units, as described.

When building with units and elements according to the invention, the advantage is gained that they can be manufactured in a factory with finished inner surfaces, they may be provided with door openings, installed electric wires, central heating-system elements, pipes and the like which can be connected in an installation phase. Thus erecting the house can be carried out very quickly and with relatively modest labor as compared with what is usual even nowadays with normal building procedures.

It is apparent that when building with units and elements according to the invention it is possible to yield extraordinary savings in costs. They can be achieved when manufacturing elements in great series, in the form of shorter working hours for building a house and in the form of a decreasing need of labor, and thirdly in the form of decreased investments, because the capital of the building is invested only for a short time.

It is possible to envisage that the invention has a great importance in terms of political economy. As realized on a large scale it is adapted to reduce predominant costs of dwellings and to shorten the realization of the private and public building programs, assisting in this way in solving the housing problem presently prevailing in certain countries.

It is natural that the form of the floor, Wall and ceiling slabs of the room units according to the invention is not restricted to the trapezium-toothed cross section as described herein, but other cross sections may be considered which may accomplish the increase of load-bearing ability and opposite overlapping of the elements. Thus the cross section can be, for example, wavy as well as of other forms.

Further it is possible that the room units comprise only the floor and ceiling slabs and one side wall, and then while erecting the house the ceiling slab will be supported either by pillars or by another side-wall slab on the other side. It is not even necessary that the room units be assembled so that the thickened portions in the opposite walls are staggered by half a pitch, as before mentioned in the description, but it may even be realized so that the staggering is provided in the elements to be placed side-by-side, and one on the other, while of course at least two units are needed which are dilferent in this respect.

The foregoing disclosure relates only to a preferred, exemplary embodiment of the inventive prefabricated building elements, which is intended to include all changes and modifications, as well as additions to the example described and illustrated, which are within the spirit and scope of the invention, as set forth in the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. In a building a plurality of prefabricated, cast building elements, each building element comprising a floor slab, a ceiling slab and at least one side-Wall slab form ing a monolithic structure, constituting a room unit adapted to form at least part of a room and the like confined space in the house, wherein the cross section of said slabs on the inner side thereof is plane and on the outer side said slabs are provided with a relatively coarsepitched toothing so that load-bearing, thickened beamlike portions are formed therebetween, thus stiffening and strengthening the structure and said building element in substantially gapless mating engagement with beamlike portions of respective adjoining slabs of other building elements.

2. In a building as defined in claim 1, wherein said slabs are fitted to the adjoining slabs so that the ceiling slab of a lower building element and the fioor slab of a superposed, upper building element overlap with respect to each other, so that projections constituting the beamlike portions of the upper building element fit into depressions between similar projections constituting the beam-like portions of the lower building element.

3. In a building as defined in claim 2, wherein a wall slab of one building element overlaps an adjoining wall slab of another, adjacent building element.

4. In a building as defined in claim 1, wherein the profiles of opposite wall slabs, and the opposite floor and ceiling slabs, respectively, are set off in horizontal direc tion by half a pitch with respect to each other.

5. In a building as defined in claim 1, wherein said beam-like portions of the wall slabs include means for the vertical stacking of the building elements.

6. In a building as defined in claim 1, wherein the inner surface of at least some slabs in the building element is fully finished.

7. In a building as defined in claim 1, wherein the outer side of said floor and said ceiling slabs is provided with relatively thin intermediate portions between said thickened beam-like portions, in one of said slabs said intermediate portion and in the other slab said beam-like portion being recessed for planar, substantially gapless mating engagement therebetween and with the respective beam-like portions of the associated wall slabs.

8. In a building as defined in claim- 1, wherein at least one of said floor and said ceiling slabs is provided with a channel-shaped recess.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,154,142 4/1939 Whelan 52 -79 3,292,327 12/1966 Van Der Lely 52 /9 X FOREIGN PATENTS 1,247,006 1960 France.

JOHN E. MURTAGI-I, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 52236, 589 

